I did a lot of quick work on almost all of the site’s pages before resurrecting it after the recent hack attack. Some coding got smooshed here and there and a bit of it was sloppy, even if you couldn’t see it on the page. The pages are still being improved and updated bit-by-bit and you might even notice that a section your browsing suddenly gets upgraded when you go to the next page. That’s just me shoveling new pages onto the server and freaking you out.

PLEASE let me know if you run into any broken pages, broken images, broken links, horribly slow pages (especially the pages with a crapload of sprites) or anything like that by replying to this post. It’ll help if you let me know which browser you’re using and its version number (usually seen in the “About Browsername” option on the Help tab).

I’m taking a 96% pause from fan art to be added until the SOPA/ProtectIP crap rolls through, so I’m concentrating on sharpening up a few site-related things.

GFX Generators – Sprites now have a “Direction” option. Default is the direction that the screenstyle wants the sprites to face (like a Vs Screen with P1 facing normally and P2 having a horizontally-flipped sprite).

Default is how the screen suggests the sprites should be pointed. Normal had the sprite facing its original direction and Reverse flips the sprite horizontally. Screen Opposite causes the sprite to face the opposite direction that Default would make it face.

Tutorials – The article I made in 2008 about browsers’ forced anti-aliasing turning sprites into pixel diarrhea has been rewritten and moved to the tutorial section. You can find it right here. I also replaced the game sprites with my own pixel art so the page can stay up after any of those IP bills become law.

A new site has been added to the Quick Links on the side navigation: NXISTENCE.NET. Anyone who wants to read articles about gaming but don’t want the annoying schmucky smarm or baseline idjitry of commons sites need to check them out. The site is run by good people, so go give that place some love!

Do you enjoy fan art, game graphics, screenshots, game mods, sprite edits, tribute videos, game walkthroughs and anything of that nature? If so, time may be running out for you to do so. There are two bills currently being discussed in the US House Judiciary Committee that claim to be about fighting internet piracy, but many experts say that companies would gain the power to block US citizens from visiting sites they claim to be offenders of copyright law.

How would the U.S. government handle things? ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement, part of the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security) shut down five websites on the claim that they were counterfeits and bootleggers. As reported by TechDirt and the New York Times, one site was Dajaz.com, a site that provided downloads to songs purposefully leaked by the record companies for promotional purposes.

The abuse I’ve mentioned is what they can do without SOPA or Protect IP, so imagine what they’ll get away with if this bill passes. They already have the Chappellian “Shoot first, sprinkle crack on the corpse later” method down to a science when it comes to using the DMCA and site-specific kill switches. The fact that I’ll have to shut down this site if the bill passes isn’t the main reason I’m bothered by this. Many of us have turned to the internet because we don’t like what most media companies are pushing in our direction. Creative people and independent reporters are using it to avoid dealing with the same shady companies that have been spending money to push these bills and own the news channels which won’t tell you the same stories I’ve linked to here. Piracy may be hurting them, but their biggest problem is how the internet is giving us options. No, it’s not a c-o-n-spiracy as much as it’s the kind of typical corporate dick-move you’ll see happen when groups think a form of technology, like VCR’s, will threaten their money flow. They’re paying a lot of money to screw up the internet in the hopes that you’ll run into their open, greedy arms after they close off every other option you have now.

You’ll find some beautiful pixel art, tutorials, tips, links and some excellent articles about 2-D gaming. Those who are as inspired by Kiwi’s work as I am (hint: A LOT) should bookmark the new site and follow the site’s account on Tumblr to see pixel art from Kiwi along with many cool pixel art reposts. Those of us who know Kiwi have been hoping that he’d make a site like this for a long, long time and we knew he wouldn’t disappoint. He did a great job and I can’t wait to see what else he has planned for this site after an amazing start like this.

Mini Logos – The G.I. JOE, Cobra, He-Man and Thundercat mini-logos from last week’s GFX Generator updates from Christmas are now in this gallery.

MugenBoss – There’s no new content but I added List Index pages for Magic Sword and Kirby.

That’s it for 2010’s updates and I hope you liked some of the new stuff and changes that the 10th anniversary brought. I’d like to thank everyone who gave me feedback about it because you helped make things better here. I hope this place brings back memories about games you forgot about, introduced some new games to those who are just getting into the scene or let you know that you weren’t the only fan of that one game your friends scream on you for liking. It’s even more important now that many of these games can be downloaded and played again for just for the first time ever on a console like Konami’s X-Men. The updates in 2011 will be a bit farther apart but I still plan to bring the love of these games to the table and maybe finish one of those long-term projects I’ve been working on in bits and pieces. No promises on that. See you next year!

MugenBoss – I’ve been promising to improve MugenBoss’ look for years but never came up with anything I liked until now. There will be a few more things added in July but I really wanted to get the basics out there now to see how they look. Honestly, MugenBoss had been ugly long enough.

Vs. Maker Seeing as how I almost burnt myself out working on this last week, this update is really small. Thor got another sprite and another color set while Strider Hiryu’s palette was modified to include his helpers (options) which let me add another win pose.

Time for another two-color preview sprite:

You’ll see that whole sprite along with other scratch-made sprites, sprite edits and much more when the Anniversary updates kick in starting on July 19th.

edit: oddly enough, the hit counter was at 99500 when I originally posted this update and it went by twenty by 8 PM EST. I’m curious if the 100000th hit will be before or after July 19th. “Hmmm. I wonder. Oh well.”

Majesco Entertainment announced that there will be a “Data East Arcade Classics” game for the Wii that will feature 15 games for $19.99. The current game list from the press release says: “BurgerTime and its sequel, Peter Pepper’s Ice Cream Factory, Bad Dudes vs. Dragon Ninja, Burnin’ Rubber, Heavy Barrel, Caveman Ninja, Magical Drop III, Side Pocket and many more.” Caveman Ninja is the other name for the game Joe and Mac. The ESRB listing also mentions Street Slam and Secret Agent (a.k.a. Sly Spy). It also mentions the jiggle-action in Magic Drop III. It’s good to see an arcade compilation that has so many platformers and side-scrollers along with a beat-em-up even in that incomplete list. See Majesco’s press release here.

Just in case you haven’t heard, M.U.G.E.N 1.0 New Release Candidate 2 was released this week and has fixes for many of the problems from RC1. Elecbyte has been using the feedback and testing info of users and programmers to get the new M.U.G.E.N as backwardly compatible as they can. Get the new version at their site and remember to keep your older versions, too.

(Archive of post originally from Sat, 03 October 2009 04:22:35 by PrimeOp)

This update isn’t big but it’s important. It’s the first full update from the NewNew Computer that doesn’t freeze or spontaneously restart. It’s also a crossover update with my Illmosis art/comic site for the last update for Twofold month. He’s one of my original characters (please dont steal lolololol) and I devoted most of this month to working on stuff for him. He’s a ninja so I decided to celebrate here by making this update full of

Minus World – An all-new article was added to the Minus World section. One word: Sidbillies. There are ninjas in that too!

Vs. Mode – You may want to check out the Vs. Mode index page. The poll fight feature isn’t back, but it’s much closer than it’s ever been since 2002. It should be ready by early 2010 but future teasers and tests for it will make it clear why it’s taking a lot of work. There’s a test of the “Fight Archive” page using the old Superninja 2002 battle.

MugenBoss – The miscolored pixels on the log in the “Karate Champ Alpha – Stage 4” stage finally got fixed. There are no ninjas in it but the stage is compatible with most ninja characters in MUGEN. Also, in case you haven’t heard, Elecbyte, the creators of MUGEN, are back. Fo’rilla. Check out their new site and see what they’ve been up to.

Sprites – Along with a redesign for the Final Fight sprite hub page, sprites, animations and cinema pics were added to the Final Fight 3 page. A few Samus sprites and items from the NES game were added to the Metroid page. Strider Hiryu’s fighting stance and taunt were added to the Marvel vs. Capcom page. One sprite of each Ninja Kid from the Taito game was added to the Taito page.

Custom Sprites – New sprite edits of Kazan and Wendy Milan (Rushing Beat series) and Kunoichi (Ninja Warriors) were added to the Game Related page along with improved versions of Kazan and Wendy’s earlier edits. Lex Luthor jumpsuit sprite updated on the DC page and in the Vs. Maker generator.

Minilogos – A group of great Wrestling minilogos made in the 64×26 format have been donated by Sage Freehaven along with new minilogos for Balrog, M.Bison, Martian Manhunter.

Graphic Generators

The Vs. Maker Balrog and Bison finally get their own logos and Martian Manhunter gets a more recent one. Not much of a surprise if you’re reading these in order. Here’s a surprise thought: my character, Twofold, was added with an all-new sprite made from scratch along with a portrait and minilogo. How’s that for a site crossover?

Updates will be back to almost every two weeks again now that the new computer is all sorted out and the programs are working. Thanks for stopping in and I hope you enjoy the update.

ScrollBoss will be updated along with my Illmosis site this Sunday. There will be a tiny bit of content crossover with the ninja theme along with… well, you’ll see.

This won’t be a big update but it will still include new sprites, sprite edits, Game Index entries, minilogos, links (BTW: Elecbyte is back!) , a MUGEN stage fix or two and some additions to the Vs. Maker generator.

If that isn’t enough, a long, lost section from the early days of the site makes a bit of a return before it’s full-on comeback in 2010. All this nonsense and more drops this Sunday.